If you’re in the market for a St Valentine’s Day treat with more impact than a bunch of roses, the K Club in Co Kildare is hosting a Champagne dinner with Laurent-Perrier on Thursday, March 3rd. Something to look forward to, long after the roses have wilted.
Each of the six courses at the dinner will be paired with the Champagne house’s wines including Laurent-Perrier Brut, Laurent-Perrier Vintage 2008, Laurent-Perrier Grand Siècle, Laurent-Perrier Ultra Brut and Laurent-Perrier Rosé.
Executive chef Philip Brazil’s menu will include Irish brown crab risotto, lobster bisque and Parmesan foam, and a main course of suckling pig with pancetta, potato purée and rosemary apricot chutney. The fish course will depend on market availability.
A limited number of tickets are available, at €175 per person. A bed and breakfast package is available for €299 per room, based on two people sharing, and a complimentary upgrade is available to anyone booking by telephone and quoting Irish Times Reader.
Cook up a menopause-wellness plan
Fiona Staunton, a Ballymaloe-trained chef who also has a degree in education from Trinity College, is offering a six-week menopause cooking programme online, informed by her recent personal experience of a medically induced menopause, due to breast cancer. It is one of a range of healthy eating workshops and workplace wellness courses that she hosts virtually.
The six modules covered in the course are: Eat for brain health; Eat for inflammation and joint stiffness; Eat for mood; Eat for immunity; Eat for heart health, and Eating and living for ultimate health for the whole family. As well as the cookery demos, the course includes weekly meal plans, for the whole household if applicable, with a particular focus on nutrients a woman needs in perimenopause and menopause.
The course begins on February 2nd and will run for six consecutive Wednesdays at 8pm, with recordings available if you can't join live. It normally costs €249; for a 20 per cent discount, use the code ITFood when booking. See fionasfoodforlife.ie.
Big deal landed by Keohane Seafoods
A Cork company has become Lidl Ireland’s biggest supplier of fish. In a deal worth more than €20 million, Keohane Seafoods will bring its fresh and frozen Irish seafood to the chain’s branches across Ireland, as well as selected Lidl stores in the UK, Germany, Cyprus, Italy, Greece and the US.
Keohane's Seafood was established in 2010 by Michael Keohane and his sons Colman and Brian, and now employs more than 220 people, with premises in Bantry and Cork city. Last year the company was named Lidl Packaging Reduction Supplier of the Year for removing nearly 18 tonnes of plastic from its products.
Plant-based range has wow factor
Gosh! is a range of plant-based falafel, burgers, sausages and snacks newly arrived in Tesco, Dunnes, SuperValu, Aldi and Lidl. There is plenty of variety in the range, which the manufacturers claim contains only natural ingredients. “You won’t find anything in our ingredients list that you don’t recognise, it’s all classic fruit, veg, herbs, spices, grains and pulses that you’d find in your own kitchen cupboard,” they say.
Mainstays of the range are the Mexican-style burgers with kidney beans, chipotle and lime, and beetroot burgers with carrot, kale and mint. The falafel come in beetroot, red pepper and chilli; Moroccan spiced, and Mediterranean varieties. Sweet potato pakoras, spinach and pine nut bites, and sweetcorn and quinoa bites are handy snacks that can be cooked from frozen. You’ll find them in chill cabinets and they are suitable for home freezing.
Melting moments for February 14th
Grainne Mullins's Grá Chocolates, which opened a concession stannd in Brown Thomas, Dublin yesterday, following on from its successful pop-up in Brown Thomas, Galway, has released its eagerly awaited Valentine's Day range, which features a box of 12 love heart chocolates in six limited edition fillings (€35) , and two giant chocolate hearts (€35). Croí Álaínn is a white chocolate heart with raspberry filling and Póigíní is a milk chocolate heart with a salt caramel filling. All are made with ethically sourced Valrhona chocolate and Irish cream and butter. You can add a Valentine's card for an additional €4, and book a shipping date of your choice. See grachocolates.com.
Catch on to marinated herring
The nutritional value of oily fish is well known, and in additional to an increase in the range of tinned options on sale in Ireland, a new variety of marinated herring, sold in tubs, has just launched in 18 branches of Dunnes Stores, in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Kildare, Wicklow and Limerick. Donegal company Atlantic Treasures has secured the listing for its balsamic vinegar, onion and spice marinated wild Irish herring (€5). As well as adding flavour, the marinade dissolves the bones, which some consumers prefer.
